{"id":176706,"date":"2021-02-12T14:44:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T11:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/hopes-grow-for-lockdown-easing-as-uk-nears-vaccine-target\/"},"modified":"2021-02-12T14:44:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T11:44:36","slug":"hopes-grow-for-lockdown-easing-as-uk-nears-vaccine-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/hopes-grow-for-lockdown-easing-as-uk-nears-vaccine-target\/","title":{"rendered":"#Hopes grow for lockdown easing as UK nears vaccine target"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Hopes grow for lockdown easing as UK nears vaccine target<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"coronavirus\"
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Britain closed in Friday on a mid-February target to offer coronavirus vaccinations to 15 million of the most vulnerable people in the UK, raising hopes it could lead to restrictions being eased.\n <\/p>\n

More than 13.5 million people have been given a jab since the country’s biggest-ever immunisation programme began in early December, with a daily average of 431,232 receiving a vaccine last week.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to offer jabs to all those in its top four priority groups\u2014which includes over-70s, care home residents and some key workers\u2014by the end of this week.<\/p>\n

The devolved government in Wales, which controls its own health policy, said it will reach its target of vaccinating the top four categories on Friday.<\/p>\n

Figures showed nearly 22 percent of people in Wales have been vaccinated, compared to 20.3 percent in England, 19.2 percent in Scotland and 18.7 percent in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The UK government in London, which is responsible for sourcing vaccines, is next aiming to have offered jabs to all over-50s by May and the entire adult population by September.<\/p>\n

Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford said the successful vaccine rollout combined with falling infection rates could soon allow for some restrictions to be lifted “carefully and cautiously”. <\/p>\n

“We can see a path into the spring where it will be possible for us to go back to doing some of the things that we’re all missing so much,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Reopening ‘roadmap’<\/b><\/p>\n

Infection rates have dropped markedly across Britain over recent weeks, as strict lockdown measures have curbed previously spiralling case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths.<\/p>\n

That has prompted calls for the stay-at-home rules to be lifted in early March.<\/p>\n

Johnson has vowed to review all relevant data next week, ahead of setting out the government’s “roadmap” for reopening the following week.<\/p>\n

Ministers have said ensuring the return of in-person schooling for some students will be the immedia<\/a>te priority.<\/p>\n

Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, one of the government’s most high-profile scientific advisers, said Britain was now “in a better place than I might have anticipated a month ago”.<\/p>\n

Johnson will “have some bandwidth” to start reopening primary schools in March before potentially easing other restrictions the following month, he said.<\/p>\n

But he cautioned against moving too hastily.<\/p>\n

“If we relax too quickly without seeing the effect of each stage of relaxation, we may do what we’ve done before and relax too much, see a surge in case numbers, and still need to tighten up measures again,” Ferguson told Politico’s “Westminster Insider” podcast.<\/p>\n

The government is also facing pressure from some of its own lawmakers to act.<\/p>\n

Mark Harper, who chairs the COVID Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, said this week there was no case “for any legal restrictions” once the most vulnerable have been inoculated.<\/p>\n

“Vaccinating the top 9 vulnerability groups will reduce COVID deaths by 99 percent & COVID hospitalisations by about 80 percent,” he added on Twitter. <\/p>\n

“After we have protected all those vulnerable people, what arguments remain to keep any legal restrictions in place?”\n <\/p>\n\n

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UK expands virus vaccination campaign to over-70s\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Hopes grow for lockdown easing as UK nears vaccine target (2021, February 12)
\n retrieved 12 February 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news<\/a>\/2021-02-lockdown-easing-uk-nears-vaccine.html<\/p>\n

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